Zen Moments

A man surprises people at a gas station and offers to pay for their gas. He selects his target cars almost at random and tells his amazed recipients: “Just do something nice for somebody else…”

“It’s cracked like this because
it’s perfectly in line with the Buddha’s teaching”

A friend of mine bought a Blackberry the other day. The new Blackberries are pretty slick – email, contacts, calendar, sat-nav, camera… He got it set up, but he couldn’t get the email or the sat-nav to work properly.
After waiting on hold and several [...]

“I need a hundred years between each utterance… “

Deep in the mountains.
I brought no camera, no sketchbook.
Like this Buddha rupa beside its mossy stream,
it is sufficient just to be here.

I need a hundred years
between each utterance-
to clarify and settle thought-
to make the plain poetic,
and the poetic plain.

Breathing in: open-hearted.
Breathing out: open-minded.

Just keep asking yourself, “What [...]

“The darker it gets, the more brightly the light shines”

Just as a smile is infectious and causes delight in others, so, much more powerfully, our wisdom and compassion shines like a warm and tender light on those around us, and our very being becomes a gift to others…
The darker it gets, the more brightly the [...]

With a worried look on her face she asked me:
“What did I do wrong?”

This is something I wrote for a lady in Sri Lanka who decided she wanted to develop her meditation practice in daily life. She resolved to bring more mindfulness into ordinary day-to-day activities. So she set out to go shopping mindfully.
She [...]

“No thanks, I don’t need anything right now… was like shutting a door in their face…”

I learned a lot about receiving when I was a monk.
I lived as a Buddhist monk without money for 17 years – where everything I consumed (apart from water and toothpaste) actually had to be put into my hands – I [...]

“Zen monks at one with Flash.”

The Laughing Buddha or Budai is a wandering monk who clears away the woes of the world. He carries an alms bowl and a cloth sack, which never empties, and is filled with many precious items, including rice plants (symbolizing wealth), sweets for children, food, small children and animals. [...]

“May your Buddha Nature illuminate all your moments, especially the foggy ones, this new year and beyond!”

Happy New Year from NOT2WO!
My holiday travels along the California coast are officially over, and despite all the nice places I’ve seen and experienced along the way, it’s good to be back at home-sweet-home in NYC.

I must make a [...]

”To suddenly bump into a flower that’s hot – that’s astounding.”

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.” – The Buddha.
According to ancient legend, the Buddha was born able to walk, and with each step, lotus flowers bloomed. The Buddha is often depicted sitting on a giant [...]

“I invite the new year to energize me with the courage and exertion to live every moment as if it were my very last…”

Greetings from San Francisco!
I’ll be spending the last day of the year watching the sun sink into the ocean. I plan on following the sunset, to first gather in, then let go [...]